The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooperpage 2 of 514 (00%)

The color of the Indian, the writer believes, is peculiar to himself,and while his cheek-bones have a very striking indication of a Tartarorigin, his eyes have not. Climate may have had great influence onthe former, but it is difficult to see how it can have produced thesubstantial difference which exists in the latter. The imagery of theIndian, both in his poetry and in his oratory, is oriental; chastened,and perhaps improved, by the limited range of his practical knowledge.He draws his metaphors from the clouds, the seasons, the birds, thebeasts, and the vegetable world. In this, perhaps, he does no more thanany other energetic and imaginative race would do, being compelled toset bounds to fancy by experience; but the North American Indian clotheshis ideas in a dress which is different from that of the African, andis oriental in itself. His language has the richness and sententiousfullness of the Chinese. He will express a phrase in a word, and he willqualify the meaning of an entire sentence by a syllable; he will evenconvey different significations by the simplest inflections of thevoice.

Philologists have said that there are but two or three languages,properly speaking, among all the numerous tribes which formerly occupiedthe country that now composes the United States. They ascribe the knowndifficulty one people have to understand another to corruptions anddialects. The writer remembers to have been present at an interviewbetween two chiefs of the Great Prairies west of the Mississippi, andwhen an interpreter was in attendance who spoke both their languages.The warriors appeared to be on the most friendly terms, and seeminglyconversed much together; yet, according to the account of theinterpreter, each was absolutely ignorant of what the other said.They were of hostile tribes, brought together by the influence of theAmerican government; and it is worthy of remark, that a common policy